Schools Provide Clarity on COVID-19 Cases
Schools Provide Clarity on COVID-19 Cases
Some schools in the CCX News viewing area are still listed on the Minnesota Department of Health website as having COVID-19 cases. But what do these numbers really mean?
Maple Grove High School, Wayzata High School and Providence Academy are among the schools listed. To be listed, schools had to have reported five or more cases during a recent two-week period. The numbers do not mean students contracted the virus at school, only that students were in the building when they were considered infectious.
These schools also remain on the list until there have been no new infections for 28 days. For some schools, a small trickle of cases could keep them on the list for months. Wayzata High School, for instance, first made the MDH list the week of Dec. 10.
Most Cases Related to ‘Community Exposures’
According to Osseo School District spokesperson Barbara Olson, since Jan. 1, there has been a slight uptick in reported cases in schools in Maple Grove.
“We don’t see a link among the cases,” said Olson in a statement to CCX News. “They appear to be unrelated family and community exposures.”
Todd Flanders, headmaster at Providence Academy, says cases at his Plymouth school are also linked to community exposures.
“There has been very, very little COVID transmission at school or school-sponsored events,” said Flanders. “Most community cases were contracted outside our school day and events.”
Flanders said Providence Academy “never had a challenge with cases at the school.”
At one point during the pandemic, the Osseo School District had six schools listed on the MDH website. The district notes that to only have one school listed now indicates that virus activity has declined.
The state’s current seven-day case rate average is at 4 percent, the highest since Jan. 31, but far below the rates seen in November, when case rates reached as high as 15.5 percent.
A spokesperson for the Wayzata School District said an increase in cases at Wayzata High School was due to “a sports situation.”
“Because of quick mitigation efforts and a thoughtful process we were able to get the situation under control and keep the situation isolated,” said Wayzata’s Amy Parnell in an emailed statement, citing a school nurse.
Wayzata has not seen a rise in cases within the high school setting since students returned full time last week, Parnell said.
CCX News reporter Sonya Goins contributed to this report
Also see: 3-17 COVID-19 Update: MN Gov. Walz in Quarantine After Possible Exposure
Maple Grove Senior High School
Providence Academy
Wayzata High SchoolBrooklyn Center | Brooklyn Park | Crystal | Golden Valley | Maple Grove | New Hope | Osseo | Plymouth | Robbinsdale
